Not ever been here before, but the opportunity arrived and so here I am. Along with my brother-in-law Mark, his wife Jean, and my sister Ruth. Mark and Jean have been here for almost a month already and they are the “opportunity” as they have been coming to Mexico for the past five years.
Ruth is on her spring break and is filling in for Lawrie, who is busy curling in the Senior Men’s Canadian Curling Championship in Trois Rivieres, Quebec. Ruth goes home on Sunday, Lawrie arrives on Monday, and Mark and Jean go home on Thursday. Lawrie and I then have another week and a half before leaving. I am going to try to blog a time or two while here. The internet is pretty sporadic so it may just be that my photos and observations get posted after arriving home, but whatever!
After I arrived on Monday morning, Mark, Jean and I were taken to a market in Cancun. We had an enjoyable time wandering about looking at what is available. Jean suggested I plan on finding special momentos in Akumal, where there are artisans and a person could be pretty sure the manufacture is Mexican rather than from one of the other countries in Central American. The one thing I can see today that I would really like to go home with is the cotton shirts that have lovely tiny stitched tucks in interesting patterns. It isn’t that we don’t have cotton shirts at home, just that rarely does one see this type of detail.
Coming to a warmer climate is always interesting for me as I see the plants outdoors are typically those I’ve grown inside for many years. The purple Wandering Jew, Moses-in-the-cradle, Croton, and small leaf trailing philodendron are very noticeable around Cancun. And now that I have been to a few warm places, there are the ubiquitous bougainvillea, palms, coconut palms and what looks to me to be a fiddle leaf fig.
Mark and Jean haven’t spent time in Cancun, so we used this opportunity to have the driver travel the hotel row. This is a rather unusual strip of land that is pretty much nothing but hotels and beach. We all agreed it wasn’t a place we would want to spend our holidays. Too American, too five star, and definitely too busy! But the ocean was beautiful.
After fetching Ruth from the airport in the afternoon, we trundled on our way south, stopping at Playa del Carmen to pick up groceries. My other favourite thing about visiting a different country is the food. There are always lots of new things to see and try. We picked up one fruit that has a hard brown exterior and appears to have a softer almost red interior. We saw a broken one and all agreed it looked interesting enough to try. Interesting to note that all milk is UHF packaged. Mark says the white onions are especially sweet and flavourful. Hmmm, just finished lunch and I’m hungry again! Much of the produce is grown very close and so the flavours are quite wonderful.
Ruth and I requested we go to an ATM, that was fun too. The first one was out of cash. Fortunately there was another one across the street. There is some English used on the screen, but not always. The big thing is that Pesos are written the same way as dollars and cents. Pretty weird and slightly scary to ask for $5,000.00. But ask we did, and happily took out the pesos that did amount correctly to the equivalent dollars.
Days later … We have now had a snorkel or two, played in the water, walked here and there, eaten local food and of course Ruth and I have been lost and also sunburned. All fun and enjoyable, except getting sunburned. I’ve managed to do a very good job of that I’m sorry to say. No, I’m not taking pictures, just think lobster!
